Shuffle: Ten Songs for Steve and Asuka
by occasionallyme
Summary: Ten ficlets inspired by ten songs.


I did this on a whim. Limited time, random songs, a happy challenge. Not my best, I grant you that, but it was pretty fun. And I've just realized how sappy my taste in music is. 0_o

Disclaimer: Tekken and all the songs mentioned here are obviously not mine.

* * *

**You and I Both – Jason Mraz**

Steve gives her a sideward glance before he orders two iced teas. He remembers she was never fond of alcoholic drinks (the smell in particular) and a sacrifice such as withholding the dire urge to consume whiskey isn't too big to make. Not with her around, anyway. Because it has been such a long time since he has last seen her earth-brown eyes, all aglow under the dim yellow lights, or the auburn of her hair, now longer. It has been a while since he's last seen that smile, equal parts derisive, playful, and _her._ Just her. The upward quirk of her lips like a stolen memory awakened in his blood – bittersweet and ethereal like snowfall.

He once thought he'd never see that smile again.

"Well here's to me and finally getting married," she says with a somber smile, raising a glass and clinking it against his.

"To you and Hwoarang," Steve murmurs in feigned agreement, regret muted by the cordial tone of his voice.

They drink in silence, letting the atmosphere of the club seep through them, wash the alien awkwardness away, and replace it with the quiet understanding of friends. She rests a hand on the bar's wooden surface and the want to hold her grabs him. But he won't. They've agreed a long time ago that this was and is for the best.

--

**Make You Smile – +44**

Thrice now. Thrice now in a row. Always unintentional, or was it? Asuka wasn't very sure, but what were the odds of him conveniently popping up in places where she was conveniently present? Thrice?

She walked pass him, avoiding the stare of his sky-blue eyes. Smirking, he sidled up beside her, trudging along with her to wherever she was heading. Same thing he did yesterday. And the day before. A wordless conversation of shuffling feet and the accidental bumping of elbows, with the occasional fleeting look here and there. He didn't talk. She didn't ask. But it was comforting to have a companion on these jaunts, even if it did seem a little… weird.

He was weird.

"Steve," she started, a lump of apprehension in her throat. Better to get this over with. "Why are you here?"

"Hmm? Well with the tournament going on…"

"No, really," she interrupted. "Why are you walking with me? Why are you always with me?"

She turned her face and looked up to him, noticing his calm expression had not changed but his eyes had a certain twinkle in them underneath the summer sun.

"Because, Kazama you smile whenever you think I'm not looking. And I like it." He said, fixing his eyes on her with a look of unconcealed pleasure on his aristocratic countenance. "I like seeing you smile, I mean."

They continued in cheerful wordlessness, yet Asuka's cheeks were noticeably a little pinker in color and her head was bowed a little lower. Still, she smiled.

--

**Ageless Beauty – Stars**

His scars are a reminder of what he does not know, what he doesn't want to know. They are ugly; gleaming red and crisscrossing vine-like on his arm, like chains that tie him tightly to a horrible place he only knows in nightmares. It sickens him, having to wake up every day to the sight of these unwanted tattoos.

But what sickens him the most is that no one, absolutely no one, sees them. Really sees them with the two fucking eyes that they are cursed with.

He glares at himself in the mirror and finds a monster staring back at him– a horrible cocktail of profanities and muddled genetics.

His _parents _look at him with pride in their eyes. Their champion, a titan. A fucking demigod.

He screams at himself for living in the same sham of a life every single day.

His fans scream his victories back to his face. Their Bruiser, the vehicle of all their rage and judgment. Their current amusement.

They are blind. They overlook.

But she is the only one who sees.

_You know you can get off your emo-train and look at me. Look at me, goddammit. Scars… scars, okay? You think you're this ghastly monster, this hideous beast, because of these scars? You know what, Steve? That's the biggest pile of shit I've heard so far from your mouth. Your scars are not you. They'll never be you. They're a part of you, but they'll never be you. Unless you will them to be. _

And gently:

_Steve. Don't let them take you back there. Come'ere… Come. Here._

He permits himself to be held in her desperate arms, lets her wipe the sweat of his brow. He permits himself to see what she sees.

--

**18th Floor Balcony – Blue October**

"Asuka," he whispered in the blue glow of the city, his head on the flat of her stomach as they laid still on the wooden floorboards of the musty room. They'd been out the whole night laughing and swearing they'd never watch slasher films again when Steve's inclination to make snide commentaries couldn't be contained and the movie house people had to literally push them out of the cinema. It had been a while since her stomach last hurt this much from giggling and laughing. She felt as if she were five again, running down city streets where lonely halls had been and chasing taillights when dragonflies were left behind in her memory. And maybe if she were the least bit romantic she'd admit that tonight was the first time she was ever alive. Like really alive and not just sleepwalking to the beat of some unknown drum.

"Yeah, Steve?" she stroked his hair and looked up to the pallid blankness of the ceiling.

He nuzzled against a pale arm. "Don't sleep."

Shivering from the warmth of his breath, she closed her eyes. Maybe all she needed to do was to let herself go and dive steadily into this… she didn't know what to call it… this great perhaps and lose herself. For once.

"I won't."

Maybe that was all she needed to do.

--

**Outsiders – The Daylights**

She was an outsider, never like the other girls with their butterfly pink lips and rouge rouge cheeks. Artificial beauties with their strawberry perfume and their shrill, baby voices. She wore a skirt, she clipped her hair behind her head, but she was never part of an irrelevant clique.

She was an outsider. And while she was proud that she never had to resort to such pettiness to win respect (though fake, she knew), she still thought it would've been nice if she had someone to confide in at least. She wasn't friendless, but she wasn't popular either. She was just _there_. Just another label in high school. A label unto herself.

But when he started showing up just beyond the school fence, all nonchalance and pretending (and the excuses he made were all laughable, she chuckled) that he was just passing by, when her classmates started teasing her with the creepy-but-gorgeous-looking-fair-haired-boy, when he began to walk her home and tell her more about himself, about how he sometimes felt different from his siblings, his relatives…

**I don't feel like I'm supposed to be there. Something's screaming in my blood that I just ****don't**** belong with them and I have to run, run away. Ever get that feeling, Kazama?**

She felt content. She was not the only outsider. And wouldn't she be surprised if he admitted he felt just as content by being with her, too.

--

**Travelling Quartet – Kahlil Fong ft. Fiona Sit**

Who would've thought that loud, brash, tomboyish Asuka Kazama could actually lose whatever poise was left of her at the mere presence of one Steve Fox? It amused Lili, the playfulness that marked the relationship between the two: her direct insults to his manhood and his subtle slights on her lack of femininity, a firm hand on her shoulder and her shrugging it off and chiding him of 'taking advantage of the situation'. They looked… almost adorable together, even though Lili still believed Steve deserved someone a little more refined, a little less loud, someone who could match him in every way.

Jin couldn't disagree more. Whoever he thought he was, Steve, in his book, could keep his hands to himself. But he was polite enough not to voice his agitation to the two. Instead, he turned to Lili, who laughed at the sight of wariness in his face; similar to the one Asuka expressed when she first found out that he and Lili were together. It's as if the situation was reversed, with Jin as the fretting cousin and Asuka as the infatuated one.

"It's just that… what with his history and all…"

"Jin…"

He sighed. "I'm afraid he'll hurt her."

"They'll be fine," she assured him, meaning every word as she patted his arm and gazed at the couple from across the room. "They'll be fine."

--

**One Last Chance – James Morrison**

You know when you've found the perfect person: pretty, no – fuck that – gorgeous. Beautiful, kind, clever, brilliant actually, more brilliant than any stone set in the night sky. And you, being the complete and utter piss artist that you are, you say something terribly, terribly stupid, you fuck things up. So you unknowingly let her go, let her slip through your fingers, because you're an arse. And you know how when she's gone, when she's finally upped and left, there's a pain in your heart that's just too fucked up to be true and your mind registers nothing, absolutely nothing. So you look for her, mkay? You look for her. Run. In the middle of an ungodly December with your jacket back at the hotel room and your feet in the thinnest pair of slippers and you see her standing and waiting at the very same place you first heard her laugh.

"Well?" Asuka crosses her arms and glares at you pointedly and your brain can't help but tell you that she's cute as a button when she's angry.

You're no scientist, but you know what to say. Hopefully, you do.

"I'm sorry."

She gives you one hard look before she punches you in the gut. You double-over and swear under your breath. Shitshitshit. But you think you deserve that. Because you pretty much do.

"Took you long enough," she hoists you up and places your arm over her shoulders, grinning as you both walk back to the hotel and you know she's worth it. God, is she worth it.

--

**Brighter Than Sunshine – Aqualung**

Cynical, she's always been cynical. And he voices her opinion: he's just looking for a good time. They both know that. She's levelheaded sometimes and impetuous sometimes but she knows that deep, deep within her that no, just no. She's not made for this. And he's flighty and too detached to want to be attached to anyone. She's a soaring bird and he's a pleasure-seeking fox. They both know it won't ever work for them.

Still it's odd how Steve's presence lifts her spirits up in the slightest of ways and how a part of her will always search for a pair of clear-blue eyes in the middle of the crowd.

And it's odd how the noise around them just mutes to an affable silence whenever Asuka's about; how she seems to glow warm and bright in the insubstantial darkness… like a radiant sun.

Odd how they both feel as if everything's right with the world when they look at each other, but they'll never admit that, not to each other, not to anyone. Not in this lifetime, they won't.

--

**Romeo and Juliet – Christian Campbell and Kristen Bell**

They aren't Romeo and Juliet. For one thing he's not a sap and another thing she's not a meek lamb. He revels in fistfights and arguments and she stops them before they become a little too much (though one thing can't be helped and that's her joining in for a moment or two). She can be rabid if something or someone pisses her off to an irredeemable degree, and he is just as vindictive when he is being provoked.

And they debate. Quite often. About moral principles and ideals and music and tea…

Yes, tea. Darjeeling with a slice of lemon or green?

They aren't Romeo and Juliet. They're both as skeptical as they come. No suicidal tendencies in either's bones as well.

They aren't Romeo and Juliet, but their love is not as superficial. Sure, they had been physically drawn to each other at first but careful confessions and a smile later and everything had changed for them. Where Romeo loved Juliet for her fairness, Steve loves Asuka because she is stronger and braver than him. Where Juliet loved Romeo for his rose-colored words, Asuka loves Steve because he tells her the truth. Always a different shade, his words – whether they be a stinging green or a jovial yellow.

Beatrice and Benedick? He considers. And she tells him to shut up and help her pick up a book for Julia's birthday because honestly, she has no idea what the girl likes reading these days.

"If she says she has this book I will kick her so hard," she grumbles an ominous threat as she stands by the cashier. And he gives this bewildering creature, this wonderful, wonderful girl, a fond look.

Steve and Asuka.

--

**Gemini – Sponge Cola**

This is the first time he holds her.

They are sitting beside each other, a casual blond head on her shoulder, and they talk about how the tournament will end and she confesses she's scared of everything. She is scared of their impending fight; scared of the current state of the world; scared of how her self-righteous cousin is running things. And he, slowly, tentatively, takes her smooth hand in his and squeezes it with a tenderness unaccustomed to them both.

"Let me know if my grip's too tight," Steve says. And she is silent.

This is the first time he kisses her.

He nips her at first, bites the lower corner of her lip, teasing her, and she breathes laughter into his mouth. He pulls back a little, confused, scared even of what he's doing. She's just a girl. She's… she's what, sixteen? Seventeen? And he's twenty-two… he's old.

But she wants it, he can see it for himself; this girl is reaching for him, wanting him. How can he refuse the girl, when he wants her for himself? So he kisses her and tastes a tangle of grief and determination in her little mouth and all his doubts run away.

"Let me know if I'm doing this right," Asuka says. And he is smiling.

This is the first time he makes love to her.

Slow, slow. His kisses are slow and they burn feverishly all over her body and she quivers at the slight feel of his coarse skin. And there is a solemn hush between the two as moonlight begins to melt into dawn and her heart is beating wildly against his. A nervous finger trails down on the smoothness of his scars and he remembers what he is. For once, he doesn't care.

He is here. She is here. And all they want to know is if they can stay here all of their lives.

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Hopefully that wasn't THAT horrible. Comments are welcomed. Always welcomed.


End file.
